That’s funny, my last trip on Amtrak was in 1980 as well. I rode from Milwaukee to Whitefish, MT where I got off, unpacked and assembled a touring bike (bicycle) and rode off on a great adventure. The train trip was on what was a new train set that year, and I was fairly impressed by the experience. Later I learned that the fares on a trip like that (The Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle) covered approximately 50% of the operating costs of the trip. The rest was picked up by poor schmuck general revenue taxpayers across the country. To say nothing of the capital costs.
Those costs include the salaries of the bloated staff. I had taken trains all over Europe, and each train had only one conductor, but those Amtrak trains had several.
We can thank that paragon of Republican conservatism, Richard Nixon, for creating Amtrak.